Teaching sales, marketing and customer service with humor and enthusiasm

Putting the Service Back into Customer Service

Customer service is not all it could be these days, especially when you are on the phone with customer service rather than being there in person. One of the things that you can do to make your business stand out from the crowd is to offer stellar customer service. Especially when customers are having problems with a product, shipping, your website or whatever.

Some of the most frustrating things from a customer standpoint, all of which I have either experienced or heard about lately, are the subjects of this week’s blog.

1. Regularly getting a recording that tell me that the company I am calling is experiencing a heavier than normal number of calls and to please call back.

If this is happening on a regular basis, perhaps it’s time the company invested in better quality control, or added more people to their call center to field calls from customers.

2. Assuming that if I am having a problem with their website, it’s because I am doing something wrong and then getting frustrated with me.

I am finding that the customer service people seem to have less patience these days. It may well be because they have a limited amount of time to complete and resolve a customer complaint.

3. Interrupting the customer when s/he is half way through a sentence.

This has happened a couple of times lately. I am asked a question and when I start giving the customer service person the information they have asked for, I am interrupted by the person saying, “I understand” and if I continue saying it again. However, when I try the same technique they just keep talking.

We all have plenty to do, most times too much. Though if you are speaking to a customer, especially one that is having a problem of some sort, the most important thing you can do is to be patient. Let the customer tell you what the problem is without interruption (even if s/he does go on a bit too long).

You should also assume that the customer is explaining the problem correctly and understand the explanation or information you give them.

Practice the three “Ps” of customer service, be Patient, Polite and Pro-active.